Oakmont's Santos downs Oak Ridge's Subjeck in 170-pound Brown final

Anne Stokes The Press TribuneOakmont's Peter Santos throws Lodi's Colin Anderson during their 170-pound quarterfinal in the Tim Brown Invitational on Saturday at the Sacramento Convention Center. Santos won by technical fall and went on to defeat Keaton Subjeck of Oak Ridge 5-1 for the championship.

SACRAMENTO — Peter Santos was no stranger to his opponent Saturday.

Santos was matched against a familiar foe in Keaton Subjeck of Oak Ridge in the 170-pound final at the seventh annual Tim Brown Invitational.

The two met at the 2012 Brown tournament with Subjeck taking the title. They met again in the Sac-Joaquin Masters Championships, and Santos won the title. On Saturday, it was Santos again on top as the senior beat Subjeck 5-1.

“I wanted to win and happy to take the title,” Santos said. “We are good friends. It’s not a hated rivalry.”

Oakmont finished 26th of 97 schools in the tournament that featured 824 wrestlers and was moved to the Convention Center from its normal home across the street at the Memorial Auditorium as it gets a renovation.

Foothill coach and tournament director Bill Lum was unsure about the future venue for the tournament. He said there are plus and minuses to both. He enjoys the seating at the Memorial, but he also enjoyed how the larger Convention Center made the tournament run quicker than in years past.

Woodcreek junior James Gomez went into the invitational ranked 16th in the state at 120 pounds and was hoping he could make a deep run. But Gomez said he regretted not taking semifinal opponent Daniel Ruiz of Madera seriously enough.

“He’s a tough kid,” Gomez said. “I was wrestling him like I would wrestle a first-rounder. When you go deeper into tournaments like this, you get really tough opponents.”

Gomez (28-5) lost his first consolation round match before beating Michael Klee of Santa Rosa-Cardinal Newman 7-4 for fifth place and still feels he has a solid shot at a good run toward the Masters.

“I feel very confident,” Gomez said. “I feel strong. … I like my chances (of) going to state, but it’s not going to be easy.”
Woodcreek finished in 20th place and Granite Bay in 38th.

Granite Bay senior Sean Brown said he dropped 10 pounds in the past two weeks to be able to compete in the tournament. It paid off. Brown beat Logan Fore of Windsor 2-1 to place third at 126 pounds.

“I knew if I came in and wrestle like I wrestle, I could get to top three,” Brown said. “I am so happy. It definitely paid off cutting the weight. I just want to finish my senior season strong.”